"I’ve always enjoyed singing but something changed when I was around 17."
Ladies and gentleman, theys and thems, welcome to the Brighton & Hove residents' community corner series celebrating our city’s bold drag artists and boundary breaking performers! I wanted to create a series that goes beyond the glam with our legendary and local queer performers so we can all get to know them more because erm, why not?!
This week, we’re joined by award winning singer, songwriter and performer: Paul Diello.
If this is only the first interview of this centrestage series that you've stumbled across and you want to catch up on the others don't panic! You can catch up HERE and next week I'll be having a chin wag with Brighton's very own Queen Flea, suspected arsonist, and general mischievous nuisance: Lydia L'Scabies.
But today, it’s all eyes on Paul Diello so let’s dive in head first!
My day has been good thanks. I’m a bit sleepy as I got in late last night but I'm good apart from being sleepy!
I’d describe myself as a queer artist who blends music, storytelling and performance into something that sits somewhere between a gig and a piece of theatre. I love creating a world on stage where people can feel held, moved and included-sometimes that means joy and glitter, sometimes that means something softer and more intimate. My pronouns are he/him.
Thank you! The title actually comes from the second track on the album. I’ve always loved the contrast in that image. The quiet darkness of the night suddenly illuminated by these bursts of colour and light.
It feels symbolic of how moments of joy, love or connection can cut through even our heaviest or most difficult periods. It just captured the emotional shape of the record for me.
It always takes me so long to record an album that by the time it’s out, I’ve already written the next one, so there’s always a bit of a backlog! Most of these songs were written over 10 years ago so they all mean different things to me now then what they did when I wrote them.
Yes I can actually recall the exact moment! I’ve always enjoyed singing but something changed when I was around 17. I started listening to to a lot of sixties artists like Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane and I one day I asked my brother, who is a guitarist, to play Somebody To Love and I just belted it out with this new confidence. My brother looked at me afterwards like, where the hell did that come from?! It was such an exciting feeling.
Absolutely. My identity is threaded through everything I create. I don’t always sit down to write about being queer, but it naturally informs how I see the world, how I love, how I grieve, how I celebrate. So even if it isn’t the obvious subject matter, it’s always present in the emotional tone and perspective of the songs.
Ironworks Studios in Brighton is my home from home, I perform there really regularly and it’s really joyful. I feel like a real community has been created within that space and the events are incredibly special.
Well I absolutely adore Lady Gaga, I’ve been to all her shows and love everything she does. But I’ve been obsessed with Madonna since I first heard La Isla Bonita on a cassette mix tape in 1987 when I was only a small child so it has to be Madonna. She is the original pop icon and her support for the LGBTQ+ community during the 80s and 90s was trail blazing.
Kim Cattrall (aka Samantha Jones from Sex In The City) tweeted about me and my show during a performance earlier this year! That was pretty wild!
“Let ‘em say we’re crazy..” 💋❤️@brightonfringe #PaulDielloMusic pic.twitter.com/ExRVsIUUQw
— Kim Cattrall (@KimCattrall) May 18, 2025
Being part of the LGBTQ+ community means belonging to a family you find, not one you’re necessarily born into. Personally, it’s given me space to be fully myself-unapologetically, joyfully, messily. Artistically, it’s given me a language of resilience, creativity and reinvention.
Queer people have always made beauty in places where we weren’t always welcomed.
I think that spirit is woven into everything I create.
I love going to see live music whenever I can. I also enjoy getting on the number 27 bus on a clear day and going to Saltdean and looking out the window at the coast, then walking back to town.
I just watched a recent 2 hour interview with Madonna and Jay Shetty on YouTube where she was talking all about her spiritual practices. I was trying to pay attention to all her Kabbalah talk but all I could focus on was how mesmerizing Jay Shetty’s eyes are! Quite the cutey!
I’m doing a show at Ironworks Studios next Friday (21st November) called The Great 80s & 90s Movie Soundtrack Songbook with my full band. It’ll be camp as tits! Also you can keep track on my website. (HERE).
